The Public Sphere in Muslim Societies

6. THE DYNAMICS OF SUFI BROTHERHOODS

CHAPTER SIX THE DYNAMICS OF SUFI BROTHERHOODS NEHEMIA LEVTZION SHARI`A AND MYSTICISM IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE Islamic religious law is the totality of God’s commands that regulate the life of every Muslim in all its aspects. Islamic law is the most typical manifestation of the Islamic way of life, the core and kernel of Islam itself. Theology has never been able to achieve a comparable importance in Islam; only mysticism was strong enough to challenge the ascendancy of the Law over the minds of the Muslim, and often proved victorious.1 The shari`a, a God-ordained law, is entrenched in a deep-rooted public sentiment and forms the basis for the Muslim social order. Sanction of the religious law contributed to the formation of a Muslim public opinion that accorded the shari`a and the `ulama' near monopoly of legal and moral legitimization , and endowed the qadi with a degree of autonomy vis-à-vis the rulers. The shari`a was developed as an autonomous legal system by fuqaha' (jurists), who asserted their position as the sole interpreters of the Prophet’s heritage. Since their formation in the eighth and ninth centuries, the various legal schools not only represented different interpretations of the law but were also solidarity groups. Only the Hanbali school of law retained these characteristics over a long period; the other schools of law ceased to function as mobilizing social movements after the twelfth century, and this role was taken over by Sufi brotherhoods and related organizations. Islamic orthodoxy emphasizes the distance between God and man, as comparable to that between a slave and his master: like a slave, a man can please God only by strictly observing his commands. Sufi mystics developed alternative ways of approaching God, through spiritual and physical exercises. Sufis therefore do not have to observe the precepts of the religious law, as do others. Islamic mysticism began as a marginal esoteric movement, considered heretic by the jurists. The rupture between jurists and mystics reached a dramatic peak with the execution in 922 of al-Hallaj, who claimed to have reached 109 a complete union with God. But in the tenth and eleventh centuries more Sufis accepted the Islamic law as binding. Sufism became integrated into the mainstream of Islam, and before long religious leaders (`ulama') were simultaneously Sufi shaykhs and legal scholars. THE ORGANIZATION AND STRUCTURE OF EARLY SUFI BROTHERHOODS Small communities of a master and his disciples (murids) replaced the loose master-disciple relationship of early Sufism. These entities continued to be known as tariqa (plural: turuq), but the literal meaning of “a devotional path” gave way to such terms as brotherhood or order. Before the eighteenth century, however, brotherhoods did not have a central organization and were not actually self-supporting social organizations.2 The loosely structured Sufi brotherhoods nevertheless became active in the public sphere, by allying themselves with more structured social organizations . In the countryside they became embedded in tribal or territorial units, which charismatic shaykhs were able to manipulate. In urban societies the brotherhoods were linked to voluntary organizations, like the futuwwa, the urban movement of young men. Later, in the Ottoman Empire, the Sufis were allied with the akhi association of young men and the trade guilds, as well as with ghazis (warriors on the frontiers of Islam) and the Janissaries. For most Muslims the connection to Sufi brotherhoods was through the cult of saints (awliya'), which from the twelfth century on became central to the religious experience of Muslims. It was through the shaykh and the tomb, rather than through the `alim and the mosque, that Islam reached the common people. One was born and socialized around the shaykh’s tomb and the baraka (divine blessing) that emanated from it, and each village, town ward, and tribe had its saint’s tomb. Visitations to saints’ tombs were the highlights of religious life, particularly for women, who went to the saint’s tomb on Fridays , when the men went to the mosque for the Friday prayer.3 By giving confidence to individuals, through the power of their protective amulets, the saints helped to maintain social stability.4 Sufis were deeply concerned with the life of the community. Shaykhs voiced the people’s grievances and condemned tyranny and oppression. They played a part in conciliation and arbitration, and their houses were sanctuaries.5 Individual Sufis and brotherhoods oscillated between individualistic denunciatory piety and community-oriented legalistic world affirmation. Pious withdrawal from the world was characteristic...